~ryanlowe/blog: Can the Rest of the World Influence the US Presidential Election?

Can the Rest of the World Influence the US Presidential Election?

I'm curious: given that Canada is decidedly left-wing compared to the United States, does the majority of the Canadian public plan to back Democrat John Kerry in the presidential election this fall?

I don't mean the federal government of Canada backing Kerry -- in the event of a Bush win that could be disastrous politics. But Canadian citizens could hold some sort of rally in support of Kerry to show the United States public who many of us agree with (or disagree with).

Not that the US public would care what their friendly neighbor to the North thinks ... but if many countries of influence have similar rallies, like Germany and France or even stronger allies like the UK and Australia, it could send a message to the people of the United States that who they vote for president doesn't just affect them, it affects politics world-wide. It affects everyone on the planet.

All over the world people demonstratred against the war in Iraq (watch the video at the bottom). Maybe they'll demonstrate against the incumbent United States president this fall as well.

Posted at September 21, 2004 at 06:51 AM EST
Last updated September 21, 2004 at 06:51 AM EST

Comments

Ask yourself how Canadians (or Australians, etc) would react if Americans held rallies in favor of their preferred leader in your elections. I suspect that your idea would backfire, badly.

» Posted by: James Robertson at September 21, 2004 07:58 AM

The United States is in a unique position of power worldwide. If you asked an Australian what he thought of Canadian, Russian, Japanese or Germany politics, he probably wouldn't care. But would he have an opinion on the United States or its president? Probably.

Do Americans care about Canadian politics? I doubt it, it doesn't affect Americans very much. Australian? British? German? French?

So I don't think your question is valid. The US doesn't care enough about Canada to hold a rally about our political issues. I wonder how many Americans know who our Prime Minister is, or the Australian Prime Minister. EVERY Canadian adult knows who George Bush is -- we hear about him on TV/newspapers/Internet every single day. Sometimes the news talks more about US politics than our own domestic issues.

We care who gets elected as the US president because the US is much more powerful than Canada, and ultimately that decision affects us. People in other countries around the world might feel the same way.

What I was curious is whether people will think it's worth holding a rally about.

Whether or not it would "backfire": would the American public actually think "hey, all of these people worldwide obviously don't like Bush if they are demonstrating against him a week before our presidential elections. Maybe I'll vote Bush just to piss them off."

Or "to hell with our foriegn policy and what the world thinks, I'm more concerned about domestic issues". Surely a worldwide demonstration would change some people's minds.

It might not be very effective but I doubt it would "backfire".

» Posted by: Ryan at September 21, 2004 08:28 AM

Agreed. This isn't one of those situations where you can just flip the roles and ask the question. This is unique because the US is the *only* real super power on the planet. Thus making their decisions, especially those of foreign policy, worth a lot more since they impact many more countries than any other psuedo-super power.

In other words, we are the ants, and they are the elephant. We should note where the elephant walks.

» Posted by: roy at September 21, 2004 10:00 AM

Any rally or any opinion that any other country besides the USA will have no impact on the American voters, cause to those yankees there's nothing outside the USA.

» Posted by: Arik at September 24, 2004 01:04 PM